, 1887-07-21
NEARLY all the Tacoma excursion

NEARLY all the Tacoma excursions
lists have returned and not one came
home with good will for the treat
ment they received In the terminal
city.--Cheney Sentinel.
What Is the mater with you fell
lows, any way? There never was i'm
any city, young or old, such lavish
| expenditure OF time or money to
make guests happy and comfortable
as Tacoma made on the Fourth, and
yet few disgruntled people go
| home and abuse US without stint
simply because they monkeyed
around the candy fakir, the boot
blacks and the wheel OF fortune.
The newspaper men who did not
make them selves known have them
selves to blame IL they were caught
i'm the inevitable crush. Come now,
give Tacoma's solid citizens credit
for doing the fair thing, and do not
blame us II the side Snowman took
you In for all you were worth.
The above Is from the Tacoma
Ledger and is no credit to that journ-
al. 1t bears the imprint of that ar
rogance and pomposity that taints
everything pertaining to that pre-
tentious city. 1t is a weak attempt
at defense, which as much as says
because the systematic robbery was
carried on In Tacoma "It is all right;
what are you going to do about it?"
No one outside of Tacoma has belit-
tied the public spirit of its people in
the munihcent expenditures in
dressing the city in holiday attire
and providing attractions to enter
tain the visitors. 1t was royalty
done. The kick is over the wolflsh-
ness of the dealers of the city, who
considered the strangers legitimate
prey, and they did the plucking in
the most artistic manner. A "few
people" means 2000 in
telligent, representative people liv-
ing east of the Cascades, and three
or four times as many west of that
range, aud it is an insult to those
people to intimate that they were
the victims of " fallirs, hootbacks
and the wheel of fortune" If the
hotels, If the restaurants, if the lead
ing business houses on PacificaVenue
are included in the list of " fakirs,n
and such they seemed to be by the
visitore, then the charge has some
Of truth, otherwise it
Is reflection upon the intelligence
Of the strangers from eastern Wash
ington that no paper in the territory
except Tacoma journal would be
guilty of. There were numerous
newspaper men in that crowd, pos
sibly not having the good fortune to
be weighted down with the profu-
sion of brains that makes the Ledger
editor tower above his editorial
neighbors like the ragged head of
Mount Rainier above its lesser COM
panions, who did not desire to be
quartered as pensioners upon the
people of Tacoma. While not roll
ling in the luxury of wealth they at
least could borrow enough from
friends to pay their own way. They
neither dallied with the wheel of
fortune or scraped the undesirable
of the street fakir.
They moved in the common current
with their friends taking the same
chances and suffering the same an
noyances. BY so doing they were
thrown in direct contact with the
Shylocks who stood upon the high
ways and byways and exacted the
most outrageous toll from every
Dasser. No blame has ever been at
.ached to "Tacoma's solid citizens"
heretofore, but If the Ledger is to
class all the robbers of that place in
hat category of fakirs, bootblacks,
wheel of fortune manipulators and
'ideshowmen the only solid citizens
IN the Attn of July must have been
hose sick in bed or unavoidably
absent from the city.